This seat was created in 1950, largely replacing the former Sheffield Ecclesall constituency, its boundaries being significantly altered in 1955 with the abolition of Sheffield Neepsend. In the first five elections, up to but excluding 1966, the seat was won by a Conservative, Peter Roberts, it changed hands three times between 1966 and 1974.

Seeing a reverse-swing to that nationally, the 1979 election saw Sheffield Heeley move away from being a marginalLabour seat to a solid majority — in the seven elections since, only the first and the last have been fairly marginal, the others have suggested a safe seat. In the 2010 election the Liberal Democrat had more than a quarter of the vote, whereas the Conservative garnered 3% more votes than in 2005, on 17.3%.[n 3]

This constituency has a moderate Labour majority and contains a mixture of urban areas, in 2010 the BNP unusually in Britain achieved more than the 5% deposit threshold share of the vote, however only 5.5% of the vote, a record in Sheffield.

The constituency consists of Census Output Areas a local government districts with: a working population whose income is marginally below the national average and that has close to average reliance upon social housing.[1] At the end of 2012 the unemployment rate in the constituency stood as 5.7% of the population claiming jobseekers allowance, compared to the regional average of 4.7%.[2] The district contributing to the seat has a medium 33% of its population without a car.[n 4] A medium 24.3% of the City's population are without qualifications, a high 15.8% of the population with level 3 qualifications and a medium 25.7% with level 4 qualifications or above. In terms of tenure a relatively low 58.3% of homes are owned outright or on a mortgage by occupants as at the 2011 census across the district.[3]